Troy transit center awarded project of year, still sits in limbo

Friday, May 23, 2014

The Troy Multi-Modal Transit Facility has won an award despite sitting unused since its completion last fall.

The Michigan Chapter of the American Public Works Association awarded the city’s transit center its Project of the Year award for 2013 at its annual conference and awards banquet on May 22. The project won the ‘Structures $5 million-$25 million” category.

Lansing-based Clark Construction Company served as construction manager on the project. According to information provided by APWA, the award recognized the company for “excellence in the management and administration of public works projects.”

Troy’s transit center has sat in an existential limbo since its on-time and under-budget completion in October 2013.

This is due largely in part to ruling earlier this year by Oakland County Circuit Judge Leo Bowman stating that the 2.7 acres the Troy Transit Center sits on is owned by Grand/Sakwa Properties LLC because of previous issues with project funding.

The transit parcel was sold to Troy for $1 as a part of a 1999 consent judgment, amended in 2000, that allowed Grand/Sakwa to build Midtown Square, a 77-acre mixed-use commercial/residential development at the corner of Maple and Coolidge. The transit center had to be funded within one decade, or the land would revert back to Grand/Sakwa. The land was returned to Grand/Sakwa Properties LLC once the consent agreement had lapsed.

Amtrak will not sign a lease until the city owns the property as well, according to city officials.